BOROUGH, or Button, (Sax. forge, Borgh, or Borhoc ; Germ. Burg ; Lat. Burgos,) is a term frequently used to denote a corporate town, which is not a city ; but, at present, it is more commonly ap plied to a town, whether corporate or not, which possesses the privilege of sending representatives to Parliament.
By some etymologists and antiquarians, the term borough is supposed to have been primarily applied to a tything, or small community, consisting of ten families, who were mutually bound as pledges for the good behaviour of each other; and this conjecture derives some plausibility from the subdivision of the counties in England into hundreds, and tythings, or towns, which appears to owe its origin to Alfred, (Hume's Hist. ch. ii.), and from the similarity of the term to the word in the Teutonic dialects, (biirge, biirg-shaft,) signifying, pledge or security. In fact, these tythings, decennaries, or fribourgs, afterwards received the name of frank ledges. It may be ob served, however, that, to this day, the word burg in the German language, signifies a castle or place of strength ; which seems to confirm the observation of Verstegan, that the term borough denotes a town, having a wall or some kind of inclosure about it ; so that all places which, among our ancestors, had the denomination of borough, were, in one way or other, fenced or fortified. Indeed, it is evident, that, at the period when towns began to be formed in modern times, they must either have been in some manner fortified themselves, or placed within the protection of a nobleman's castle or residence.
But, leaving the obscure labyrinth of etymologi cal conjecture, it is of more importance to inquire in to the origin and progress of towns and communities; which have had such a decided influence on European government.
During the wild and lawless periods which imme diately succeeded the subversion of the Roman em pire, the proprietors of land, (that is, the nobility,) seem generally to have lived in fortified castles on tbeit own estates, in the midst of their tenants and retainers. Many other individuals, too weak, tingly, to defend themselves against the restless and rapati. ous spirit of the feudal chiefs and their dependants, sought protection from the caprice and violence of their more powerful eppressors, by combining toge ther, and inhabiting within the precincts of some for. tified place. There they industriously cultivated the useful arts and manufactures ; and when united in such situations, were the more easily enabled to de fend their persons and properties against the attacks of invaders. For some time, however, their political
condition was but little different from that of the en slaved peasantry. They were, for the most part, obliged to court the protection or patronage of sonic powerful prince, nobleman, or ecclesiastic, near whose castle or residence they had 'established themselves ; under whose clientship they accordingly stood, and to whom they were obliged to pay a considerable an nual tribute, as the price of the protection which they enjoyed. Some conception may be formed of the degraded state in which the inhabitants of towns were then placed, from an enumeration of the privi leges which were afterwards successively conferred upon them. The people, as Dr Smith observes, (Wealth of Nations, b. iii. ch. 3.) to whom it is granted as a privilege, that they might give away their own daughters in marriage without the consent of their lord ; that, upon their death, their ov:n chil dren, and not their lord, should succeed to their goods ; and that they might dispose of their own ef fects by will ; must, before these grants, have been either altogether, or very nearly in the same state of villanage with the occupiers of land in the country.
There were other analagous causes which also con tributed to the increase of towns, during the dark ages. In those turbulent times, when law and go vernment were only respected, in so far as they were seconded by the immediate application of constrain in g force, the princes of Europe found it extremely difficalt to protect their remote subjects, and particu larly those who inhabited the frontier provinces. On this account, they found it necessary to encourage the formation of towns, which should at once serve as a protection against domestic disturbances, and as a bulwark against foreign invasion. In Germany, for instance, in addition to the towns which already existed, the Emperor Henry I. founded several others in Saxony, Thuringia, &c. which he caused to be forti fied ; and, at the same time, conferred upon the inhabi tants several important privileges. The same policy was pursued by his successors, and their example was imi tated by the nobility. In England, even the princi pal cities appear, by Domesday-book, to have been, at the time of the conquest, little better than villa ges: but under the first princes of the Norman line, the towns and boroughs gradually rose to import ance ; and in the reign of King Henry II. they were so highly privileged, that if a bondman or servant remained in a borough a year and a day, such resi dence entitled him to the rank of a freeman.